There is breaking news this afternoon from the immigrant diversity capital of America — St. Louis. On Tuesday a promisingBhutanese refugee was shotwhile working at a 7-Eleven and ten days before that it was a Bosnian refugee killed apparently by a local thug, now its Somali refugees in what is being described as a murder-suicide. What’s next?
Family members arrive on the scene. Photo: Robert Cohen St. Louis Post Dispatch
ST. LOUIS • Two men and two women were shot dead this afternoon in a murder-suicide at a health care business on Cherokee Street, police say.
The male shooter is among the four dead, police say. Officers recovered a semiautomatic handgun from the crime scene.
St. Louis Police Capt. Michael Sack said the dead were in their early 40s to mid-50s.
The shots were fired about 1:40 p.m. at A K Home Health Care in the Cherokee Place Business Incubator at 2715 Cherokee Street, police say.
Sack said surveillance video showed the shooter opened fire after having a brief argument with people inside the business.
“We don’t know if this is a prior thing that carried over,” Sack said.
Michael Graff, who has a law office in the building, said the health care business* was owned and staffed by Somalian immigrants. He said he had heard heated arguing there on past occasions. Graff was not in the building Thursday when the shooting occurred.
Sack said the shooter appeared to be an employee or owner of the health care business, and that the victims were employees.No one else was injured.
Later Thursday afternoon, a woman with her head covered, as is common in Muslim countries, tried to walk to the scene before police turned her away.She openly mourned and eventually fell to the sidewalk.
Her nephew, Mohammed Ismail, 21, explained: “All of the people, these are our family.” Another man with them said they were from Somalia.
[….]
After the shootings were discovered and as police investigated inside, a fist-fight broke out between two women near where reporters stood. The cause wasn’t clear. One woman was taken into custody.
The shooting set the diverse neighborhood known for its Cinco de Mayo celebration and arts and music back on its heels.
I bet it did.
*Readers should know that these immigrant-run ‘health care businesses’ are often filled with fraud. We have reported on several cases where Somalis have been busted for ripping off medicare and medicaid through shady billing practices among other things. I’m not saying that is connected to this case, but, like food stamp fraud it is so easy to rip off the dumb infidels. Also, these storefront “entrepreneurs” are sometimes busy doing illegal money transfers to Africa in the back room.
Yesterday when I reported on the murder of a Bhutanese refugee in St. Louis I mentioned that another refugee was murdered earlier in a convenience store just a mile from the latest murder in a 7-Eleven. I’m guessing the local thugs haven’t bought the ‘diversity is strength’ meme yet.
Murdered refugee Haris Gogic
Here is the news from the Riverfront Timeson the death of Haris Gogic, and the capture of his alleged killer:
Last Friday [May 31], an armed robber fired shots at Haris Gogic, 19, and his brother Mirza Gogic, 23, inside the St. Louis convenience store they own together and operate in front of their home. The younger brother was hit in the head and did not survive.
Police soon after sent out a clear surveillance image of the suspect — and five days later, detectives have been able to track him down. Joseph Fox, 23, yesterday was charged with murder, assault, burglary, robbery and armed criminal action and is now behind bars.
In the probable-cause statement, on view below, police reveal more information about the violent killing — including details of Fox’s alleged attack on Mirza Gogic’s girlfriend inside the store on Chippewa Street and Alfred Avenue.
[…..]
He [shooter] pointed a gun at her head, the charges say, and forced her to go to the cash register while demanding money.
Surveillance video that helped police identify Fox
As she was screaming for help, the two brothers were reportedly in an adjacent room and heard her cries.
The brothers both ran into the store to assist her, and as Mirza Gogic approached, the armed robber threatened to kill his girlfriend.
At this point, Fox allegedly shot Haris in the head — and then shot Mirza in the right arm.
[….]
The brothers are immigrants [The family is moving out of this neighborhood—ed] who came with their parents from Bosnia to St. Louis in 2001 after having survived four years of war in their home country.
For new readers: The great migration of Bosnians to America was begun by the Clinton Administration. Clinton had to show there was a crisis in Bosnia (the presence of refugees signals to the media that a crisis is at hand!) and conveniently the resettlement of tens of thousands of Bosnians brought cheap immigrant labor to his friends in the meatpacking industry. Here is one post from 2008 that tells the story.
Update June 15th: Pockets of resistance have developed, here is Part II of my report on Lancaster.
As I mentioned a couple of times yesterday, on Tuesday I traveled to Lancaster, PA (a “welcoming” resettlement city) for the2013 Pennsylvania Consultation, a joint meeting between the “Commonwealth’s” refugee program and its workers, the national refugee contractors and the federal government.
The Atrium dining area at the lavish Doubletree/Hilton Hotel in Lancaster, PA where “stakeholders” met (at taxpayers’ expense) to learn more about how to help refugees sign up for social services. What is wrong with this picture?
Representatives from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (Health and Human Services) and the State Department’s Office of Population, Refugees and Migrationwere there to fill in the Pennsylvania “stakeholders” about the latest trends in nationalities they would be resettling, refugee and asylee rights including rights to welfare goodies, the shortage of money for the contractors and the program generally (they had money to give attendees promotional ink pens!) and how to push-back against what they called “pockets of resistance against new arrivals.” (That last is so good it will require a second post!).
Readers, I know this type of meeting can be boring and so might my reports on it, or at least this one might be boring, but it’s very important to see the kinds of people involved in refugee resettlement, listen to them and to basically become informed about the minutia of this or any government program you might have concerns about.
Your state (except Wyoming) has a Refugee Office (or an assigned state employee/private contractor) somewhere and I recommend that you visit them or their website often or get on a mailing list to receive information about upcoming meetings like this one. We were told from the podium that Pennsylvania had no pockets of resistance, perhaps no organized pockets, but I learned of a couple of people who have problems with refugee resettlement in Lancaster who didn’t know this meeting was occurring at their grand Doubletree/Hilton Hotel.
By the way, I had several occasions to help put on conferences (not taxpayer funded) at a Doubletree Hotel in Maryland, not as grand a hotel as this one, and I know that use of their facility/meeting rooms and food couldn’t be done for less than $50 a head for a boxed lunch. Based on the amenities at the Lancaster “consultation” where attendance was ‘free,’ this spread must have cost (state and/or federal taxpayers) about $100 a person. Fortunately there was no line dancing that I saw.
Here are some nuggets I learned (in no particular order):
* PA resettled 3,022 in 2011-2012. 1,194 have arrived in 2013 so far.
* The largest percentage of PA’s refugees are the Bhutanese (Nepalese), Iraqis and a smattering of Somalis. There will be Congolese coming to PA to add to their diversity.
* The refugee hot spots in PA are Pittsburgh, Lancaster/Harrisburg, Allentown, Philadelphia (the largest right now) and Erie.
* Major PA contractors are Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Church World Service.
* ORR was represented at the meeting by former Ethiopian refugee, Mitiku Ashebir. That is interesting because the present Director of ORR is Eskinder Negash, also from Ethiopia, who revolved into his government job from his perch as VP at one of the top nine major federal contractors—USCRI. Ashebir entered the government door through his former positions with contractors US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Ethiopian Community Development Council. There really should be a law against the cozy contractor/government employee revolving door.
* There were lots of little nuggets about welfare that I noted. One statistic of interest was that 2,550 refugees in PA are receiving SSI (Supplemental Security Income). After all, the US State Department is admitting elderly and disabled refugees who have to live on something—right!
* There was discussion on possible reductions in TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) on the horizon. And, eeek! drug testing too.
* There was this bit of good employment news (NOT!)—refugee employment increased by 3% over 2011! It went from 50% to 53%.
* Also considered good news is that 67% of refugees in PA are self-sufficient at 120 days, and 75% at 180 days. That does not mean they don’t get any welfare benefits—they still get food stamps for sure and likely Section 8 housing. And, so 25% are in need of all services after 180 days—doesn’t sound so good to me!
* The anticipated national caseload for FY2013breaks down like this: 70,000 refugees, 28,800 asylees, 21,000 Cubans and Haitians, 600 human trafficking cases, and 4,000 Special Immigrant Visa holders (those are the Iraqis and Afghanis who we are admitting for “helping” America). The total is 124,400 and as we were told ALL of them are entitled to all the benefits—welfare, housing, food stamps, education, health care etc.
* On top of the 124,400 is an expected jump in unaccompanied minors that ORR is responsible for. In 2012, 14,700 kids arrived in the US without parents and in 2013 the number is expected to be 20,000. Prior to 2012 the numbers were dramatically lower. Sounds like an incredible scam on America as probably parents from south of the border are abandoning their children to the government in advance of the amnesty legislation.
* Then here is something I found very interesting and helps answer a question I get often from readers. How do they decide to resettle refugees to a given town? The contractors and federal government have to continually look for fresh territory in which to resettle refugees and apparently in light of failed attempts to get new seed communities established, the feds are having ORR-PRM joint quarterly placement meetings. The next one will be in July. Before any new site is opened (usually because some contractor thinks it would be a good place), ORR-PRM will visit the site together and decide if it will be “welcoming.”
A note of caution: they will bring in a small number of refugees and see if there is going to be some resistance. If there is none, then they will proceed with the assumption that yours is a “welcoming” community. I call this the squawk factor. I think this is one of several reasons why the contractors resettle refugees in city slums—there will be no organized community resistance from people who don’t know their neighbors anyway and are just trying to survive day to day.
One final thing. I bet if attendees at the conference were asked to raise their hands if they were there simply as volunteers and not receiving a salary or travel expenses, the number of hands raised would be less than ten, maybe less than five of the approximately 130-150 attendees. (I’m guessing on the number in attendance).
Lancaster gave birth to RRW!
To learn the role Lancaster played in the birth of this blog, visit this post from 2012—So what is going on in Lancaster, PA?
More later…..”Welcoming America” combating pockets of resistance!
It’s only 54 leaving, so far, but its a step in the right direction. Here is the story from NPR News:
Work ahead in the homeland! Mogadishu was destroyed by Al-Shabaab Islamists. 2012 photo from Wodu Media
Thousands of Somalis came to Columbus during the past 20 years to escape civil war. Columbus soon had the second largest Somali community in the United States. The immigrants set up businesses, enrolled in schools and made new lives for themselves.
But now some are returning home. A small group of Somalis are going back with hopes of rebuilding the devastated African nation.
[…..]
Before the war, Mogadishu was a city of two and half million people with glistening beaches on the east Coast of Africa. Twenty two years of civil war has destroyed many of the city’s buildings and left others pock-marked by bullets. The beaches are polluted and have been used as launch points for Somali pirates.
Despite the trouble, 34-year-old Ahmed Adan moved back to Mogadishu from Columbus in January. He works with the new government. During a telephone conversation from Mogadishu he says while sporadic fighting still occurs, the time of civil war is over. On most days, he says, “life goes normal.”
“There is a lot of people coming back and I have been actually actively talking to people in Columbus, in Minnesota and other parts of the United States to people that I know,” Adan says.
Adan says he returned to Somalia because he wants to help his homeland out of a crisis. He says Mogadishu is changing from something that was almost a “ghost town” to someplace that is actually livable.
[…..]
The head of the Somali Community Association on Cleveland Avenue says 54 people from Columbus have returned to Mogadishu. At the Franklin County Council on Aging, caseworker Loodar Dafur, sees a slight drop in demand recently for elderly services among Somalis.
[…..]
Basra Mohamed is a Somali language radio host for a community station in Columbus. Her weekly programs are heard not only here but in other U.S. cities with large Somali populations. She says the pull toward Somalia is felt wherever refugees have fled.
“Not just Columbus, but people are going from Minneapolis, going from Portland, Maine, going from all the other, not just one place, even in Europe, people are going back to Somalia.” We lost a lot, we lost so much and going back means gaining some normality and getting sense of normality and finding yourself, I think,” Says Mohamed.
What’s wrong with this picture?
So tell me why the US State Department has admitted 4,921 Somalis to the US in the first 8 months of this fiscal year! American tax payers are paying a “church” contractor to resettle those “refugees” in your town and we will pay for food, housing, medical care and education for the kids while earlier “refugees” return to their homeland!
It would be cheaper and less disruptive (remember the housing riot in Columbus in December?) to give the supposed new batch of “refugees” a stipend and send them to Mogadishu!
